October 10, 2005
Let me sign up! I'll BETA test anything
UPDATE (October 14, 2005): I felt a little bad that I failed to list Seth Godin's Squidoo as I was rattling off the submitting-your-email-address-to-participate BETAs. Lucky for me, you can still sign up.ORIGINAL POST
Is it just me or has the concept of the "pre-launch" replaced the concept of the launch? It seems that every other Web page or great idea about which I hear, lately, is accepting requests to be added to the "pre-launch group," that secret legion of people "in the know." Their sites taunting me with that oversized text box, longing for my email address.
Here comes Sphere with its thin come-hither san serif. Or Flock, screaming at me in easy-reader type, daring me to submit my email. Or good old WordPress who suddenly makes me forget that I've already started blogging so I want to sign up. Or even the 37signals kids who are expert at this craft, getting me to sign into any text box they put on their site.
And that's just the start of it.
I mean, don't get me wrong. Let me sign up and I'll BETA test anything. Let me be part of that chosen few (million) who are alerted to the top-secret review site. I want to be part of the club. I want to be in the know.
I must sign up for 20 different products, a day. And I keep signing up. And crossing my fingers. Maybe they'll like me. Maybe they'll appreciate the email address I submitted. Maybe they'll recognize my name.
And then I start worrying. What happens if they all hit? I'll have to quit my job and stop blogging just to be a free BETA tester for all of the companies that want to give me the inside track on their new, world-changing products. I mean, these people are letting me into their secret layer. They're entrusting me with the keys to the kingdom. Hoping that I, Rick Turoczy, BETA-tester supreme and usability guru extraordinaire will deem their product worthy of my oh-so-qualified opinion. I can't let them down. I can't break their hearts. They're relying on me.
Once I've signed up, I've got skin in the game. There is not turning back. And, there simply aren't enough hours in the day.
But still, it never fails. It's like some strange addiction. Some temptation I cannot resist. Put a huge text box asking for my email address on your home (and only) page, and I'll sign up. No questions asked.
Why? Because I want to belong. Because I want to think I'm special. Because I want to feel like I know something that no one else knows. Because I want fodder for my blog... err... Because I want to make the world a better place.
It's no wonder the concept is so popular. It's a huge tug on the target-market ego strings.
And, like playing the lottery, it's got a certain amount of risk. Will I be chosen? What will I have to do? Will my feedback be critical to the success of this product? Will have I to log long hours documenting my success and failure with the soon-to-be-released product? Will I be expelled from the BETA pool for my counterproductive views? Will I finally, officially be recognized as one of the "cool kids"? Who knows?
I just want to be picked.
But do I ever get picked? Rarely. Why? Because I'm inferior. Or stupid. Or I used an email address from a provider that they hate. Or they recognize my name. Or something. At least, that's what the response (or lack thereof) leads me to believe. It's as if I've been taken again by some loosely concocted confidence scheme designed to bait me into paying attention to a soon-to-be-released product. I've become part of the press list. Part of the general populous. I'll know when everyone else knows. Woe is me.
But those few folks who do actually let me in? I'm hooked. Like Rollyo or like Yahoo! Publisher Network. They let me into their testing grounds. And look! They're getting a mention at the very, very end of my blog, where most of my ever-so-faithful readers will never see it because they've stopped reading long ago, fell asleep, or have started bouncing around the Web signing up for their own BETA testing experiences. Lucky, those folks are who let me into their lair. Lucky and reaping untold rewards, no doubt.
So, keep it up, you hard-at-work Web 2.0 types with your AJAX-y goodness waiting behind those closed doors the inside of which I'll never glimpse or partake. Keep taunting me. Keep extending my suffering.
I can't resist your text-box-and-submit-button sweetness. I'll keep signing up and waiting patiently by my keyboard for the email to arrive, another lowly data point for your pre-launch numbers game.
Technorati tags: BETA, Pre-launch, Launch, Squidoo
Let me sign up! I'll BETA test anything
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